A Food Blog with Personality

Lifestyle: Overload at Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Canterbury

You know me, I love a good burger! My ultimate burger definitely includes cheese, quite possibly bacon, and I can’t resist some soft, beautifully caramelized onions either. Just the thought is making my mouth water to be honest!

Burgers are a pretty simple thing, but they’re rarely done right. I’ve loved offerings at Byron before, and I love Five Guys for the ‘so bad but so good’ junk food fix. Unfortunately though I’d had some really terrible burgers. Patties so overcooked they’e bypassed pink, sped past just-about-appetizing and firmly entered grey’n’tough territory. Stale bread rolls so dry they actually crunched (and nope, they weren’t toasted). Bacon that was barely fried, let alone crisp. Fridge-cold onion (raw onion is fine, cold fried onions is a no-go). Some might call me fussy, but all I want is a well-cooked burger, preferably medium but I don’t care as long as it is juicy, some gooey cheese, a fresh bun, a bit of crispy bacon, basically a bit of love going into my meal.

With my burger-love it was with some trepidation that I accepted a invitation to review the relatively-newly opened Gourmet Burger Kitchen in Canterbury. A fellow burger-love, Libby joined me (she was extremely gutted the Satay Chicken wasn’t available the day we visited, though it gives us an excuse to go back!).

We both opted for a side of Sweet Potato Fries with Baconnaise. These fries are some of the better ones available (Ed’s are so far the best I’ve tried, but these are infinitely better than Bill’s!) – and the baconnaise is addictive! Salty, intensely savoury, with a mild but pungent garlic flavour. So good.

Onto the burgers, and Libby went for a Taxidriver. Beef patty, American cheese, house onion ring, Cajun relish, smoked chilli mayo, dill pickle, salad, brioche bun. It looks amazing and she seemed to enjoy it – and I certainly wish GBK offered brioche buns on more of their burgers.

I opted to ‘Build my Own’ using a starting point of a 6oz Patty with Smoked Applewood, and adding bacon and onion rings. Unfortunately there was a slight mix-up with my order, and despite them noting my allergy and removing the tomato it came coated in a tomato-relish – oops! They were lovely about it and quickly made me up a fresh one, though I was quite concerned to be told that it was lacking salad as that comes pre-prepared with tomatoes (I’ve always had salad in my burgers there before, so if this is the case I’ve been lucky not to have a reaction!). My burger was huge, perfectly cooked, full of melty cheese and plenty of mayonnaise (that wasn’t fridge cold either!). The bacon could have been crisper, but the extremely crunchy onion rings more than made up for it – a delicious lunch that I struggled to finish!

*Disclaimer: I was invited to review GBK and received a voucher as part-payment. The restaurant did not know I was there to review (though they may have wondered about the camera!) and all opinions are my own. I genuinely really, really, *really* love burgers…

Are you a burger fan? Where’s the best burger you’ve ever tried? What are your ultimate toppings?